It's simple. I'll just get on the horn with Google, and they'll fix it.

June 17, 2018 10:25 AM

I own an independent movie theater. Google (and other on-line movie sites) have been showing an incorrect movie schedule for the last three weeks. How do I fix this?

The local newspaper also has it wrong when they publish the schedule in their Thursday "Weekend" section. They all show us as playing "Black Panther" every day at 4:00 PM. We haven't played that movie in about a month.

Every week, I submit the updated movie schedule by email to [e-mail]. That's the address the previous owner told me to use. I never hear back from them -- and when I wrote to that address about this issue, I didn't receive a reply.

I kept thinking that the problem would fix itself, but after three weeks, I realize it's not going happen on its own. I contacted another independent movie theater in the area, and the owner told me that there is basically no way to get this fixed -- it just has to play itself out. I also contacted the local newspaper to find out where they get their schedules, but no-one seems to know. One helpful editor promises to find out and call me back tomorrow.

A bit of on-line sleuthing seems to suggest that movie schedules are syndicated through Webedia Movies Pro, but I can't get anyone to answer the phone there.

I know that this is a pretty esoteric topic, but I was hoping someone would have a suggestion.

posted by JD Sockinger to Grab Bag (7 answers total)

You could try to get the Google algorithm to notice you. Go to your business in the maps app and there should be a place to ask a question as well as propose an edit to current information. If you get someone to ask about showtimes being accurate you can have people say no, this runs the risk of looking bad for people looking up your business but it might make robot they use to get times to realize something is wrong.
posted by dstopps at 10:37 AM on June 17, 2018

Best answer: I've been in this situation before, and it's frustrating. My experience is that Google will never do anything about the showtime data presented in a pop-up card that they're gathering from the syndicators, so you do have to go to the syndicators to resolve the issue.

Currently, movie schedules are syndicated through two services - Webedia (formerly Westworld and cinema-source.com) and Nielsen Gracenote (formerly Tribune Media Services). Google has historically used Webedia for their listings, and most likely your local newspaper does as well.

So, you're barking up the right tree - Webedia is almost invariably the only people who can fix this for you. Now, I too have been trying to get in touch with Webedia for the past two weeks for the setup of a new theater, and I've heard nothing back either - there's something funny going on there. Keep trying.

However, there's one thing you might try that could work immediately, and it's the way I solved my problem a while back. Did the former owner have a csXpress account, or can you ask to see if they did? csXpress is Webedia's web-based interface into the listings they have for your theater, and you can add/edit/delete listings directly through it without emailing anybody. If you can scrounge up a login and password for your theater that was set up in the past, that's likely your best hope for resolving this pronto.

It might also be worthwhile to get in touch with Nielsen Gracenote about their listings just in case this is coming from them. Their support form for movie and TV listings can be found here.

Good luck!
posted by eschatfische at 10:47 AM on June 17, 2018 [8 favorites]

Best answer: Are your movie times clearly listed on your own website?
Are your website results visible on Google?

I can almost guarantee that these results are being scraped from somewhere, and being amplified up by the G into being consensus-official.

CinemaSource.com looks like a home cinema supplier/forum. Maybe they once were an info site, but doesn't look that way now.

Webedia has a "get listed" link: https://webediamoviespro.com/get-listed/
posted by scruss at 10:48 AM on June 17, 2018 [4 favorites]

What's the website schema markup like on your site? Do you follow Google's schema rules? Have you claimed your Google My Business listing?

I do local SEO and the best way to get help is to track down a telephone number -- any telephone number -- associated with Google My Business or Adwords. If you click around the Google My Business listing pages you may discover it.

My MeMail is closed, but let me know here if you want some help and we can figure out a way to connect.
posted by JamesBay at 12:25 PM on June 17, 2018 [1 favorite]

All the way at the bottom of the search results is a link for "Send feedback". Clicking that will pop open a feedback form, in which you can highlight the specific section of the page that's incorrect, and describe the issue. An easy side step while you try to get the data sources listed above to fix the issue on their end.
posted by isnotchicago at 9:53 PM on June 17, 2018

Have you tried both North American phone numbers? It appears the California address they list is for an apartment/condo building, which makes me wonder about the accuracy of that phone number.

Send you a memail.
posted by purple_bird at 9:30 AM on June 18, 2018

Response by poster: An update: The problem resolved itself as of a couple of days ago. I also received an email message from a sales rep at Webedia. She's responding to a "get listed" request that I had submitted. We're supposed to speak on the phone at some point. I'm sure that there's going to be a charge for the listing service (so I'll probably forgo that option), but I'll see if I can find out anything about how to correct any future mistakes that might occur.

Thanks for everyone's help. I'm marking this question as resolved.
posted by JD Sockinger at 6:38 AM on June 22, 2018